New Mexico

$500 million for affordable housing clears first committee – Source New Mexico

Published

2 years ago

January 23, 2024

0 million for affordable housing clears first committee – Source New Mexico

A Senate committee on Monday approved legislation that would put half a billion dollars toward affordable housing in New Mexico – a huge investment that one lawmaker said is necessary to stem the tide of homelessness and rising housing costs in the state.

Sen. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe) acknowledged that the Legislature likely won’t award the full amount of her proposed $500 million appropriation request for the Housing Trust Fund, a program overseen by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.

She asked for that amount of money to send the message that there is an overwhelming need for a huge investment in housing across the state. And she said Housing Trust Fund administrators have proven themselves capable of leveraging relatively small appropriations from the state into more affordable housing options.

Lawmakers and tenants call on governor to make rent control a priority for 30-day session

“This is an agency that is proven, truly. They do great work. It’s statewide,” Rodriguez said. “You can just see the results. As soon as they get the funding, it goes out.”

The Senate Committee on Health and Public Affairs approved the legislation on a 6-3 vote, with all Republicans voting against. It now moves on to the Senate Finance Committee, where it will face more scrutiny.

The Housing Trust Fund was set up in 2005 to spur investments in affordable housing and to help people find a place to live. It provides grants for mortgage assistance, home weatherization and loans for affordable housing development, among other programs.

In all that time, the agency has received $61 million from the state, including $25 million of federal funds awarded to address the coronavirus pandemic. In July 2023, the fund also received $37.5 million in severance tax bond proceeds, of which more than half has been allocated, according to the agency.

With that funding, the agency has assisted 6,500 households by filling gaps in funding to keep people housed, helping make multi-million-dollar affordable housing complexes break ground, and getting homeless people off the streets.

Isidoro “Izzy” Hernandez, the Mortgage Finance Authority director, said the fund’s return on investment – based on the interest it receives on loans to developers, federal low-income tax credits and other sources – is 16-to-1.

The agency anticipates being able to spend $50 to $80 million from the fund per year, so estimates show the $500 million appropriation request would last for between six and 10 years, according to the Mortgage Finance Authority. Any money not spent in the first year would stay in the fund, according to the legislation.

As many as 20,000 New Mexicans experience homelessness over the course of the year

As part of her priorities this session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for a $250 million appropriation for the Housing Trust Fund to assist renters, homeowners and those without shelter, as well as a loan program to finance building or renovation. She’s seeking another $250 million to the New Mexico Finance Authority for similar programs.

But the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Committee is seeking only a $50 million appropriation, according to its recommendations. The committee report does not explain why it arrived at that figure.

Nearly 4,000 New Mexicans were homeless during a 2023 point-in-time count, an increase of 48% since 2022 and likely a huge undercount.

The state lacks 32,000 units affordable to those with low incomes, and nearly 220,000 households in the state spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, according to the Mortgage Finance Authority.

In addition to sending along the proposed $500 million appropriation, the committee supported $500,000 for the state finance department, which Rodriguez said would go to help small towns complete housing plans that would qualify them for additional help from the Housing Trust Fund.

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

6 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

18 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

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Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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